Iyorchia Ayu: Nigeria collapsing under retired general — terrorists now share sovereignty with us

Iyorchia Ayu, national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), says the President Muhammadu Buhari administration has failed Nigerians.

Ayu spoke on Friday during the inauguration ceremony to usher in the newly-elected national working committee (NWC).

He said the PDP has remained the most trusted political party since 1999, adding that other parties, including the All Progressives Congress (APC), operate without “clear ideology or coherent programmes”.

The national chairman said the opposition party has a track record of “performance and legacy achievement” in its 16 years of being power.

“The PDP is the only organic political party in Nigeria that has remained a credible, tested and trusted mass movement since the return of democracy in 1999. Other political parties have either fizzled away or merged with others,” he said.

“Some have mutated into a contraption like the ruling APC without any clear ideology or a coherent programme of action. This contraption seduced Nigerians with propaganda in 2015. Today, Nigerians have seen the limit of propaganda and demagoguery. The only thing the APC is doing successfully is irresponsible borrowing.

“The PDP, on the other hand, has a history of performance and legacy achievements. In our 16 years in power, we not only gave Nigerians good governance, we also strengthened democratic institutions so as to add value to the people. In an unprecedented move, we stabilised our democracy by sanitising the armed forces of politically-exposed officers.

“We gave Nigeria her first-ever successful transition from one civilian administration to another in 2007. To the disbelief of all watchers of African politics, we willingly conceded defeat in 2015, and handed over power to an opposition party in 2015.

“It was the PDP-federal government that created value-adding public institutions like the EFCC, ICPC, NAFDAC, the Debt Management Office (DMO), the Bureau for Public Procurement (BPP), among many others.

“The PDP administration also strengthened the governance process by enacting laws to effectively drive public administration in Nigeria, namely: the Fiscal Responsibility Act, the Mid-Term Expenditure Frame-Work, the Treasury Single Account (TSA), Integrated Personal and Payroll Information Systems (IPPIS), just to mention a few.

“We negotiated and obtained forgiveness of over $30 billion of debt, making Nigeria almost a debt-free country. Foreign direct investments flowed in. Cumulatively, the foregoing made Nigeria not only the fastest growing economy in Africa, but also the biggest economy on the continent.

“From the biggest economy in 2015, the APC has given the country two recessions and turned Nigeria into the poverty capital of the world. Today, close to 40 million Nigerians have no jobs.”

While accusing the APC-led government of “mismanaging” Nigeria’s diversity, he added that the ruling party has “divided the country along regional and religious lines and exacerbated religious tensions in the country”.

“Through its marriage to nepotism, the incompetent APC-federal government is fueling secessionist agitations in the east and west of Nigeria,” he said.

“Our dear Nigeria is drifting dangerously towards a failed state. Terrorists are now sharing sovereignty with Nigeria. Nigeria is simply ungoverned. Nigeria is collapsing under the leadership of a retired general.”

Ayu added that the PDP will reclaim power in 2023 and implement policies and programmes that will secure and improve the quality of lives of all Nigerians.